Morgan's Ghost
Morgan's Ghost (also called "Three Buccaneers" and "Pieces of Eight" in production) is an unreleased cartoon film by Disney, dated around 1939. It was to have been the first the film to feature Mickey Mouse's redesign, which would eventually make it's debut in The Pointer, a short released later that year. At some point it has been supposed to be a feature film, which would have been the first to feature Donald, Mickey and Goofy, before Fun and Fancy Free. Plot Mickey, Donald and Goofy are the owners of a small tavern in a New England village called Fish Haven. On a stormy night, they are visited by a parrot with a peg leg named Yellow Beak. He is hiding from Black Pete because he has something that he wants: the treasure map of the pirate Henry Morgan. Yellow Beak offers to share the treasure if the trio can obtain a ship to get him to the island where the treasure is buried. Pete, having followed Yellow Beak, overhears all of this discussion, disguises himself as an old woman and persuades the treasure hunters to lease his ship, the Sea Skunk. After a series of slapstick interludes at sea, Pete captures Yellow Beak and the map. He sets Mickey, Donald and Goofy adrift in a tiny raft. They wash ashore on a tropical island, the very one with the treasure. They find an old chest that contains not gold but the nutty ghosts of Henry Morgan and two of his crew. They have been trapped in the chest for a century and so they celebrate being released. They agree to help the trio rescue Yellow Beak and find the long lost treasure. The ghost of Captain Morgan can't tell the trio directly where the treasure is hidden because "Dead men tell no tales." The trio and the ghosts rescue Yellow Beak and the map. A gap in the map has to be placed over the tattoo on Yellow Beak's chest to reveal the treasure's true hiding place. After battling man-eating plants, quicksand, and geysers, they find the gold. There were actually two endings. One had Pete trying to take the loot but losing a game of "Who's Got the Drop on Whom?" with the good guys getting the treasure. An alternate version has Pete taking the treasure and the down hearted treasure hunters returning to their tavern. Their gloom is lifted when Donald bursts in with a newspaper and the headline that Pete has been arrested for passing counterfeit treasure. Yellow Beak announces that he just remembered that what they found was a decoy treasure chest. The location of the real treasure is tattooed on his rear end! The story ends with them heading off to find the real treasure. Legacy The story was later adapted into a comic titled Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold, where Huey, Dewey and Louie took the place of Mickey and Goofy. On the ride Pirates of the Caribbean the echo of "Dead men tell no tales" can be heard, paying homage to aa line from the story. External links * http://www.mouseplanet.com/8214/Donald_Duck_Finds_Pirate_Gold * http://www.disneyshorts.org/miscellaneous/unmadeshorts.html Category:Articles with Wikipedia content Category:1939 shorts Category:Mickey Mouse shorts Category:Donald Duck shorts Category:Goofy shorts Category:Animated shorts Category:Cancelled projects